The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-12-01
TALMAGES SERMON.
A Pointed Discourse In Datense OF
Young Men,
The Value of n Good Home and the Bull
wark OF Power Found i'm a Noble
Ideal-Religious Principle the
Test of Character.

Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage took for the
lyn Tabernacle a "Defense Of Young
Men," his text being
And the Lord opened the eyes of the young
man.-H Kings, vi, II.
He said: One morning in Dothan a
young theological student was scared by
finding himself and Elisha, the prophet,
upon whom he waited, surrounded by
whole army of enemies. But venerable
Elisha was not scared at all, because he
saw the mountains full of defense for him,
in chariots made out of fire, wheels of
fire, dashboard of fire, and cushion of fire,
drawn by horses with nostrils of fire, and
name of fire, and launches of fire, and
hoofs of fire-a supernatural appearance
that could not be seen with the natural
eye. So the old minister prayed that the
young minister might see them also, and
the prayer was answered, and the Lord
opened the eyes of the young man, and he
also saw the fiery procession, looking
somewhat, l suppose, like the Adirondacks
or the AlIeghanies in their autumnal re-
sp'endence.
Many young men, standing among the
most tremendous realities. have their
eyes half shut or entirely closed. May
God grant that my sermon may open wide
your eyes toyour safety. your opportunity
and your destiny.
A mighty defense for young man is
good home. Some Of my hearers look back
with tender satisfaction to their early
home. 1t may have been rude and rustic,
hidden among the hills, and architect or
upholsterer never planned or adorned it.
But all the fresco on princely walls never
looked SO enticing to you as those rough
hewn rafters. You can think of no park
or arbor of trees planted on fashionable
country seat so attractive as the plain
brook that run in front of the old farm.
house and sang under the weeping will
lows. No barred gateway adorned with
statue of bronze, and swung open by OBJ
glory Of the swing gate
place, your adopted home, that also is sa-
cred forever. There you built the first
family altar. There your children were
born. All those trees you planted. That
room is solemn, because once in it, over
the hot pillow, tapped the wings of death.
Under that roof you expect when your
work is done to lie down and die. You
try with many words to tell the excel ency
of the place, but you fail. There is only
one word in the language that can de-
scribe your meaning. 1t is home.
Now, I declare it, that young man is
comparatively SAFE who goes out into the
world with a charm like this upon him.
The memory of parental solicitude, plan
ming and praying, will be to him a shield
n CHI 7 Eno fo;f
full both to his early and adopted home,
who at the same time was given over to
any gross form of dissipation or wicked
ness. He who seeks his enjoyment chiefly
from outside association, rather than from
the more quiet and unpresuming
pleasures of which I have spoken,
may be suspected to be on
the broad road to ruin. Alb.
you know his history of sin and his death
OF shame. Ii you seem unnecessarily iso-
lated from your kindred and former asso-
ciates, is there not some room that you can
call your own? Into it gather books, pa.
pers, and pictures, and harp. Have a
portrait over the mantel. Make ungodIy
mirth stand back from the threshold
Consecrate some spot with the knee Of
payer. By the memory of other days, a
fathers counsel, and mothers love, and
a sisters confidence, call it home.
My young friends, there is no way to
genuine success except through toll, either
of the head or hand. At the battle of
Crecy, in 1916, the Prince of Wales, find
ing himself heavily pressed by the enemy,
sent word to his father for help. The
father, watching the battle from wind
p,,i1Y a
wounded and could gain the day if he
would, sent word: "No, will not come.
Let the boy win his spurs, for, if God will,
l desire that the day be his, with all it's
honors." Young man, fight your own
battle all through, and you shall have the
victory. Oh, it is battle worth fighting
Two monarchs of old fought duel,
Charles v. and Francis, and the stakes
were kingdoms, Milan and Burgundy
You fight with sin, and the stake is
Heaven or hell.
Do not get the fatal idea that you are a
genius, and that therefore there is NO
need of close application. 1t is here
where multitudes fail. The great curse OF
this age is the geniuses, men with enorm.
GUS self-conceit and egotism, and nothing
else. ! had rather be an OK than an
eagle; plain and plodding and useful,
rather than high flying and good for moth
ing but to pick out the eyes of carcasses
Extraordinary capacity without use is ex.
traordinary failure. There is no hope TO,
that person who begins life resolved to
live by his wits, for the probability is hi
has not any. 1t was not safe for Adam
even in his unfallen state, to have moth
ing to do, and therefore God commanded
him to be farmer and horticulturist. He
was to dress the garden and keep it, and
had he and his wife obeyed the divine in.
junction and been at work, they
would not have been sauntering under
the trees and hungering after that fruit
which destroyed them and their posterity
proof positive for all ages to come that
those who do not attend to their business
are sure to get into mischief. 1 do not
know that the prodigal in the Scripture
would ever have been reclaimed had he
not given up his idle habits and gone to
feeding swine for living:
Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her
ways and be wise, which having no overseer OF
guide provideth her food in the summer and
gathereth her meat in the harvest.
The devil does not SO often attack the
man who is busy with the pen, and the
book, and the trowel, and the saw and the
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